Rate a Whole Season of a TV Show

[YourPalJustin]

In the 20th Century, watching your favorite TV show usually meant sitting in from of the TV set at the same time every week. That sucks. The waiting sucks. Having to plan your schedule around the broadcast schedule sucks. Having to choose between two good shows sharing the same timeslot sucks. Sucks.

In the 21st Century, we can watch our favorite TV show whenever the fuck we want, thanks to DVRs, DVDs, streaming vids, and illegal downloads. Whenever possible, we consume a whole season of a show in a matter of days or weeks. And we can go back through virtually the entire history of TV and find cool shows we missed the first time around (or were too young to watch). That rocks.

In this thread, rate the last show you watched a whole season of. Recommend to your fellow Phunners the next show they should watch obsessively from start to finish.

I'll start...

Flash Forward: Season 1 (the only season) .... 7/10
Better than I thought it would be. I was hooked after the first episode, which had a very tight, well-crafted story. (Although not all the episodes were of the same quality.) I liked the science fiction elements a lot. Several of the actors were appealing enough to make me overlook the crappier actors. In a way, I'm happy there is only one season, because it probably would have gone downhill. What stands is a pretty satisfying way to waste a few evenings.

Skins: Series 3 .... 8.5/10
I loved Series 1. I merely liked Series 2. This gets a little closer to what attracted me to the first season. For those who have never heard of this show, it's about a group of teenagers in Bristol, UK who are incredibly fucked up. There's no real equivalent on American TV, although Gossip Girl maybe approximates it in terms of teens doing whatever the fuck they want. Neither show is realistic, but I find Skins closer to my working-class, fucked up background. Skins is also funny and filthy, two complementary qualities. (Worst thing about Series 3 is Thomas, the African kid whose presence makes absolutely no sense.)

[mitchrocks]

the last season of Dexter
fucking awsome, better than season 2
not much more to say
I say watch it

[Jammsbro]

Really good idea man.

Just finished season 3 of Deep Space Nine for the third time.

The season where DS9 really started to find it's feet and the Dominion war came into the fold.

For the uninitiated, Star Trek Deep Space Nine was a much darker Star Trek series than the others. Instead of the usual episodic format it was produced usually over longer story arcs, most times overlapping arcs. These arcs were both in plot and character and it shone as having some of the most interesting, complex and highly developed characters in any TV show i have yet watched.

Season 3 set up most of the longest running stories that would dominate the next five years of DS9. If you like Sci Fi and haven't yet watched any DS9 you really should check it out. It's in my top five all time TV shows and should not be missed.

8/10

[mitchrocks]

Really good idea man.

Just finished season 3 of Deep Space Nine for the third time.

The season where DS9 really started to find it's feet and the Dominion war came into the fold.

For the uninitiated, Star Trek Deep Space Nine was a much darker Star Trek series than the others. Instead of the usual episodic format it was produced usually over longer story arcs, most times overlapping arcs. These arcs were both in plot and character and it shone as having some of the most interesting, complex and highly developed characters in any TV show i have yet watched.

Season 3 set up most of the longest running stories that would dominate the next five years of DS9. If you like Sci Fi and haven't yet watched any DS9 you really should check it out. It's in my top five all time TV shows and should not be missed.

8/10

never saw it- any of them for that matter- is it worth it to just get season 3, or should I start at the beginning?

[J3scribe]

The last TV show I watched an entire season of (on DVD) was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 7 (the final one). If you don't know anything about Buffy you've probably been a zombie for 20 years so I'm not going to bother saying anything more than it kicked ass.

BTW, VCRs have been around since before you were born (I'm guessing), since you seem to think the 20th Century was the Stone Age. The big difference between now and then is that there is an online archive, which I admit is awesome, but you still have to wait until a program airs initially before you can watch it, and then choose when and how. People still schedule their time around this unavoidable fact, albeit with more flexibility. Hang out in the Igloo sometime and you'll see what I mean.

[Jammsbro]

never saw it- any of them for that matter- is it worth it to just get season 3, or should I start at the beginning?

You really could jump right in at season 3. The first two seasons would most likely put you off as the producers had no real direction at that point. Seasons 3-7 are basically a huge war story set between two opposing quadrants of the galaxy (the federation and the dominion). I would highly recommend it from season 3 onwards.

[Jack Tripper]

Bored To Death season 2 - 4/10.

Lost the quirky oddness of the first season and basically turned into a regular sitcom.

[LiquidVapors!]

the last season of Dexter
fucking awsome, better than season 2
not much more to say
I say watch it

I Agree, Stream The First Few Seasons To Get Involved/Catch Up. I Never Watch Live Tele But This Show Is Worth It. Never Understood The Hype, Until I Got The Sniffles Recently.And Watched All 4 Seasons In A Row. Fucking Outrageous! Working On 5 Now....

[MovieHound]

The Walking Dead, season 1 - 4/5 stars

Only 6 episodes long, it hardly qualifies as a full season here in the States, but that does mean you could catch up on the whole thing in a weekend. It has some gore, but it's not primarily a zombie-massacre story. Like many tales of the post-apocalypse, it's about how the survivors relate to one another. It's been renewed for a second season, which won't air until late Summer or Autumn of 2011, so you've got time to catch up.




Rubicon, season 1 - 4/5 stars

Produced by the same network that does "The Walking Dead" and "Mad Men", this slow-paced and cerebral conspiracy thriller is a throwback to movies such as "Three Days of the Condor" and "All the President's Men." It had Arliss Howard and Miranda Richardson in supporting roles and went 13 episodes; nobody watched it, and it was canceled. I still recommend it though, it just means you don't have to rush to catch up before new episodes air.




Fringe, season 1 - 4/5 stars

Season 3 is currently airing (episode 56 airs tonight), but if you're not already watching it, you shouldn't watch the new episodes, you should start at the beginning. If you started watching now, you might - might - be able to piece the plot together, but even if you're not completely baffled, you will have missed roughly 2,300 minutes of character and plot development.

[bamafan]

Although 24 Season 8 was good I still think Season 1 was the best. Season 7 really was good too. If you've never watched any of them and enjoy action/drama you're wasting time not watching them..Start from 1

[Jammsbro]

And i agree with scribe on the "sucks" issue.

When you can watch an entire season of a show in two days the tension and drama is totally lost. It is what makes the show. If there is a cliffhanger at the end of a show and you have to wait a week to find out what happened then you are talking about it with fans, waiting for the episode and thinking about it all week. If it's a cliffhanger at the end of a season then you have to wait a year. By the time the show comes back on you are DYING to know what happened.

When you can simply click on the next file, all that tension is gone. Lost. The intention of the writer and director has been evaporated by it.

There is something that happens in DS9 season four that when i was watching it the first time lasted for months and months. It was so big a deal to me while watching it. My friend watched DS9 season 4 on video all at once and he didn't think that the event i was talking about was much of a big deal as it was over pretty quickly. I had to explain to him that what he had seen (what was instigated, set up, executed, drawn out and resolved) for him lasted two days and for me had been months of waiting.

I got a great deal more out of it simply because of the measure of time in between episodes.

[Jack Tripper]

Rubicon, season 1 - 4/5 stars

Produced by the same network that does "The Walking Dead" and "Mad Men", this slow-paced and cerebral conspiracy thriller is a throwback to movies such as "Three Days of the Condor" and "All the President's Men." It had Arliss Howard and Miranda Richardson in supporting roles and went 13 episodes; nobody watched it, and it was canceled. I still recommend it though, it just means you don't have to rush to catch up before new episodes air.

I saw a bit of the first episode last month......it seemed a bit generic to me so I didn't continue with it.....maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance.

[Jammsbro]

The Waking Dead.

Excellent if slow at times. The character moments were ace but did seem to drag on too much sometimes. Although the writers did get more time with each person towards the end of the show as characters started dying and the writers got more dialogue time with the more important ones.

My only real gripe with TWD was that all tension built into each scene was dissolved less than five minutes after it was instigated. Every time there was a scene where someone was in peril it was resolved in minutes.

Aside from that i think the writers will tighten the scripts for season 2.

7/10

[J3scribe]

And i agree with scribe on the "sucks" issue.

When you can watch an entire season of a show in two days the tension and drama is totally lost. It is what makes the show. If there is a cliffhanger at the end of a show and you have to wait a week to find out what happened then you are talking about it with fans, waiting for the episode and thinking about it all week. If it's a cliffhanger at the end of a season then you have to wait a year. By the time the show comes back on you are DYING to know what happened.

When you can simply click on the next file, all that tension is gone. Lost. The intention of the writer and director has been evaporated by it.

There is something that happens in DS9 season four that when i was watching it the first time lasted for months and months. It was so big a deal to me while watching it. My friend watched DS9 season 4 on video all at once and he didn't think that the event i was talking about was much of a big deal as it was over pretty quickly. I had to explain to him that what he had seen (what was instigated, set up, executed, drawn out and resolved) for him lasted two days and for me had been months of waiting.

I got a great deal more out of it simply because of the measure of time in between episodes.

That's right. The anticipation, the speculation and conjecture about whaat's to come is half the fun. I watched every episode of Buffy (as it was aired) before I ever bought even a season of the show on DVD so I knew what expect. And in that respect I found myself jumping ahead sometimes as I watched the DVDs to get past some subplots that I knew weren't germaine to the season's overall prefer the wait. It's cool having something to look forward to, even if it's just a TV show.

[Jammsbro]

I fucking love Buffy. Xander and Spike are two of the best characters ever. Giles and Willow to were awesome.